Defence, 1942-1952

Component identifier:

Subseries 48-10

Content Summary:

The material grouped under Defence ranges from Curtin's conscription bill to the Korean War and includes newscuttings, roneoed items, statistics and a few letters. The need for improved aerial defence, the Citizens Military Forces, school cadets, comparative national defence statistics, and the potential threats of an over-populated Asia and the Soviet Union are also covered. Hughes' main correspondent was the Director-General of Recruiting, Sir Horace Robertson.

The file also has some defence statements to Parliament, miscellaneous House of Representatives 'questions on notice' by Hughes, issues of Things I Hear, papers on the Australia New Zealand Defence Agreement, 1944 and some correspondence with the Air Force Association.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The W. M. Hughes Papers were presented to the National Library of Australia by Dame Mary Hughes in 1953. The collection was received in two consignments. One consisted of papers taken from the Perpetual Trustee Company comprising material from Hughes' Lindfield home and from his office rooms at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney; the other came directly from Lindfield. Lists of the contents of both consignments are held in the Library's Manuscript Branch. With the agreement of the executors and the Library, much of the collection, was for a time, held at the Australian National University by Fitzhardinge. He was permitted sole access to the collection while writing the biography Hughes commissioned in 1951. Fitzhardinge's own papers documenting the writing of the biography are also held by the Library (MS 5400). The papers transferred to the Library in 1953 are by no means the total collection of Hughes' personal papers, although it is impossible to say what proportion has survived. (see Fitzhardinge, p.936).

Names:

Hughes, W. M. (1862-1952)

Contents

Access and use